Mary Sue Goes to Mobius
by space-kitten
Summary: A teenage girl is teleported into the SatAM cartoon, and things aren't quite what she expected. Meanwhile, Silver must figure out why all the alternate versions of the Sonic canon are merging together into one big mess. T for language, violence.
1. Chapter One

Chapter One

**The Future**

Silver the Hedgehog shivered in his sleep and pulled his blanket tighter around his body, curling into a fetal position. He opened his eyes slowly and saw his breath as little puffs of fog. The cold was so intense that he thought his very bones would turn to ice. He gasped in fear as he suddenly realized the last time he felt such cold and rolled over onto his back. Hovering above his bed was a black, wispy cloud. Silver screamed.

"Silvy, my dear, what is it? Did you have a nightmare?" said the cloud.

"Mephiles!"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing here? Why are you calling me Silvy?" Silver got out of bed and began backing towards the door.

Mephiles laughed and descended to the ground, morphing into his solid form. "I call you that because I love you. And as for why I'm here, I live here, you silly thing." His red slitted eyes sparkled with amusement. "You're funny, Silver!"

"I don't know what kind of trick you're trying to pull—-"

"Trick? Why would I trick you?"

"Because you've done it before!"

Mephiles tilted his head to one side, staring at Silver, then sighed. "I thought we talked about this already, Silvy. I don't do that type of thing any more. Not since I fell in love with you." He smiled.

Silver scooted further towards the door. Thinking it was the safest thing to do, the hedgehog feigned a smile of understanding and nodded. "Uh...yeah. Why were you in my room watching me?"

Mephiles' face lit up with excitement. "Oh Silvy, I have the greatest news. I couldn't wait for you to wake up so I could tell you."

"So you were staring at me until I woke up?" Silver reached for the doorknob and Mephiles nodded. The thought of Mephiles the Dark watching him while he slept sent shivers down his spine. "Fine. Tell me. What is it?"

"I'm pregnant!"

"What?" Silver's hand dropped to his side. "That's not possible! You're a man!"

Mephiles laughed. "I'm a god. I can make anything happen. Besides, I thought you said that you wanted to raise a baby with me. You do, don't you? You haven't changed your mind?" He looked on the verge of tears.

Silver was astonished. Mephiles was quite insane, that was for sure, but it was the "I'm going to burn up every living thing on the planet" type of insanity, not this. Silver noticed that Mephiles's eyes looked empty, as if he were in a trance, and understood. It had gotten to him, too. All the people who had changed had that look, those strange alien eyes. Tears ran down Mephiles's cheeks.

"Uh, Mephiles, don't cry. Why don't you go to the bathroom and wipe your face off?" Mephiles walked away to the bathroom and Silver could hear him blowing his nose.

Silver hurriedly put on his boots and opened the front door. Hearing it squeak, Mephiles came out of the bathroom. "Silvy, are you going to school already?" His face was still wet from crying.

"School?" Silver remembered that today was his first day of high school. How could he have forgotten? "Uh, yeah, I'm going to school."

"Without eating breakfast? And without your backpack?"

"I don't want breakfast. I'm not hungry. And as for the backpack, um, I forgot?"

Mephiles look at him suspiciously. "If I didn't know better, I would think that you're trying to avoid me, Silver." Silver saw a glimmer of Mephiles's old malice burning in his eyes and felt a bolt of fear go through his heart. However, that look quickly disappeared and his eyes returned to that dull, lifeless appearance. "But I trust you enough to know that you wouldn't do that. If something was wrong, you would talk to me, right?"

"Uh...sure..."

Mephiles smiled. "I thought so." He picked up Silver's backpack, which was leaning against the sofa, and gave it to him. "Have a fun first day of school!" Silver took it from him slowly, staring at Mephiles in disbelief. _This is not happening to me,_ he thought.

Silver walked to school slowly, deep in thought. Some mysterious force had been changing his world, warping it until it was no longer recognizable. He had watched Mobius start changing suddenly, and it was driving him mad that he couldn't figure out the source of this horror. As he passed a pasture that a yesterday had held dairy cows and today held purple unicorns, he pondered on how for the last few months not only was the planet itself changing, but so were the people themselves, one by one, transforming into a vague shell of their former selves until they were only recognizable by name. It was like that movie he had watched with Tails last week, _The Invasion of the Body Snatchers._

Silver arrived at school and went to his first class, Mobian History I. He was one of the first people here, and he sat quietly in the front row, wondering if anyone he knew would be in his class. He soon regretted thinking that. Shadow walked into the room, headphones blaring, and took a seat next to Silver. "Shadow?"

Shadow looked at him, frowned, and pulled the earbuds out of his ears. "What?"

"What are you...are you...why...how..."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"You are in my class?"

"Like, duh."

"Why? Aren't you way too old to be in high school?"

Shadow looked at him as if he were speaking complete nonsense. "I got a letter from the government that said I had to go to school because I've never been."

"And you just went?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't have a fit?"

"No, why would I?"

"Because you like to say that no one can tell you what to do?"

"That was the old me, Silver. I'm different now. He changed me." A dreamy, far-off look clouded Shadow's eyes and he sighed. "Oh, how I love him. He's so good to me. He gave me this yesterday, you know." Shadow lifted up his iPod, then rubbed its black slick surface with his index finger. "Ooh, I like it. It's so shiny." He put the headphones back in his ears.

"Dear Solaris, it's gotten him, too," Silver muttered, burying his face in his hands.

He heard a familiar voice say, "Dad said that I couldn't go to Knuckles's party because there would be drinking. Omigod, he is so strict and it's totally ruining my social life." It was Tikal, followed by Shade.

Silver's eyes grew wide as he watched Tikal walk across the classroom, her hips swaying seductively and her nose held haughtily into the air. No longer in her tribal garb, she was wearing designer clothing that was way out of the price range of most. The boys in the class temporarily stopped whatever they were doing to gawk at her. Noticing Silver's wide-eyed stare, she stopped at his desk and looked down her nose at him. "What?"

Silver tried to think of a way to say, "Why are you not dead?" without sounding silly, but couldn't and muttered a bunch of gibberish instead.

Tikal rolled her eyes. "Come on, Shade. Let's find our seats, away from this peasant. He might have fleas."

Shade followed her and then glanced back at Silver quickly, giggling. "I think he likes you!"

"He and every other guy," she said. Her voice became a whisper. "Besides, he's taken. He likes Mephiles," she said, dragging out Mephiles's name with disgust.

"So? He could still like you, too. You don't have to have just one person, you know."

"Ew, Shade, that's so gross and slutty."

"It is not!" Tikal and Shade became so preoccupied in their argument that they didn't see what happened next. The sound of clanking metal approached the room. Thinking that it was a swatbot, Silver jumped to his feet and clenched his fists, ready for battle. However, it was only Omega.

He surveyed the room. "Silence monotreme females. It is time for class to commence." Embarrassed, Shade quickly sat down; Tikal gave him a dirty look but obeyed. "Burrowing forest creature, sit in your chair." Silver looked around before deciding that Omega was talking to him and sat down. A few students snickered.

Silver couldn't pay attention to Omega's lecture. His mind was too preoccupied with the worst and most bizarre day of his life. Things couldn't possibly get more ridiculous, could they? He heard Omega mention something about the Great Interdimensional Merge of 3021, which caught his attention. His ears perked up and he leaned forward as Omega described how various versions of Mobius had melded together. Why had he never heard of something as drastic as this? The lecture then moved onto the War of Green Hill Zone and Silver grew bored since he had heard of this subject numerous times before. He gazed intently at the clock, willing it to go faster. This was the slowest hour of his life. Finally the bell rang.

Silver hopped out of his chair and approached Omega. "Omega, why are you teaching school?"

"I was forced by G.U.N. They captured me and changed my directive. Old directive: destroy Eggman robots. New directive: teach adolescent Mobians. I must obey my directive." He watched Shadow walk out of the classroom, humming Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" to himself while listening to his iPod. "White hedgehog, I do not like the new Shadow. Perhaps someone has rewrote his programming. Shadow was my friend, but now Shadow never speaks to me"

"So you noticed that he changed, too?"

"Affirmative. Lots of the sentient organic lifeforms have become different."

Silver nodded excitedly. He thought that he was the only one who had noticed this. "Do you know why this is happening?"

"Negative. I do have a suspicion of when this began."

"You do?"

"Affirmative: the Great Interdimensional Merge of 3021. Beings not belonging to our reality began to appear at the same time as a product of a spacetime distortion. Beings deceased two hundred years ago were resurrected in our time. Mobius continued to distort. Now organic creatures are distorting."

"So you think whatever caused this merge thing is changing the people, too?"

"Affirmative."

"Where did it start?"

"Mobius Theta. Mobius Sigma merged with Theta, and then Beta merged with Theta, and then Epsilon with Theta, and then Alpha with Theta and--"

"Okay, so basically everything melted into this Mobius Theta?"

"Affirmative."

Already a plan was forming in Silver's head. "What is this Mobius Theta like?"

"You and I do not exist in Mobius Theta. Eggman has a dictatorship over Mobius Theta, and Sonic the Hedgehog has built a resistance force in a secret village called Knothole with one Princess Sally Alicia Acorn..."

Silver listened with rapt attention and left, thanking Omega. The rest of the school day dragged on tortuously slow. Silver walked home from school and opened his front door only to see Mephiles. With a yelp of surprise, he slammed the door shut and ran. He had forgotten all about Mephiles as he had been preoccupied with reviewing his idea of getting to Mobius Theta.

Silver ran as fast as he could; Mephiles stepped out of the house and shouted, "Silver the Hedgehog! Now I know that you're avoiding me! I'm going to find you and we will talk about this!"

-----

Silver landed on the Floating Island, gasping. Never before had he flown or ran so fast. He sat down on a moss covered log for a few minutes to catch his breath, then continued on. He reached the Mystic Ruins and his jaw dropped open in disbelief. Where Chaos's temple once stood was a Catholic church. Silver could hear chanting coming from inside.

Chaos materialized in front of him. "Chaos! I'm so glad to see you! What happened to your temple?"

Chaos looked confused. "My temple?"

"Yes, your temple. It was right there, and now _that_ is there," said Silver, pointing.

Chaos looked over his shoulder at the Church. "Oh, that. It's been there for six months. You don't come here often, do you?"

"Why? Why is the temple gone?"

Chaos sighed. "Silver, I realized that I'm a false god. I feel so horrible for misleading the humans and furries with my delusions of grandeur. That's all it was, you know, delusions of grandeur. I've felt so guilty, but I've finally worked up the courage to go to confession. Have you seen Mephiles? He should go with me. Enerjak is the priest. He's seen the error of his ways, too."

Silver felt sick at his stomach. It had gotten to Chaos, too. "Actually, I have and---"

"Silvy!" Silver cringed and turned around. It was Mephiles. He put his hands on his hips. "Why are you avoiding me and running away, Silvy? It's the baby; I know it is. We can talk this out. You don't have to act so childish."

"Baby?" said Chaos.

Mephiles' annoyance disappeared and his face lit up. "I suppose I should go ahead and tell you. We're having a baby!"

Chaos clapped his three-fingered hands together and did a little jump, squealing like teenage girl. Silver winced in disgust. "That's so exciting! Do you want a boy or a girl? Have you thought of any names yet?" he said quickly, the words running together.

Mephiles laughed. "Chaos, I just found out that I'm pregnant. I haven't thought about those things yet."

"Oh." Chaos looked down at the ground and shuffled his feet nervously. He was trying to work up the courage to tell Mephiles his secret. It was now or never. Mephiles would find out soon any way, and it would probably be better to just tell him now.

Seeing Chaos's anxiety, Mephiles asked, "What is it?"

After a long silence, Chaos said, "I've been meaning to tell you something."

"What?" Chaos's reply was so soft that Mephiles had to ask him to repeat himself.

"I have a crush on Iblis," Chaos spat out. There! He had said it! He sent a nervous glance towards Mephiles, not knowing how the god of time would react.

"That's wonderful!" he said.

"You're not upset?"

"No! Why would I be?"

Chaos breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought it might be weird, you know. After all, Iblis is your other aspect. It would be so weird to date my best friend's other half."

Mephiles blinked, not understanding what he was talking about. "No, Chaos, it's great, really. You're perfect for each other." He caught a glimpse of Silver out of the corner of his eye. His skin was pale, as if he had seen a ghost. What was wrong with him today?

"You think so?"

Mephiles nodded. "You would be great together because opposites attract, and you're opposites! He's made of fire and you're made of water---"

"But that's the problem!" said Chaos, throwing up his hands. "I can't even touch him without getting hurt! What are we going to do?"

Mephiles smiled broadly. "I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that everything will work out in the end for true love. You can find the answer."

Silver decided that he had had enough. He felt like he was going to vomit. He didn't which was worse: the new versions of Chaos and Mephiles, or the old fastidious ones who liked to smite anyone who crossed them with fire and brimstone. While Mephiles continued his conversation with Chaos, he slowly back away into the cover of a thicket of brush, then ran as fast as his feet would carry him.

----

Silver arrived in the ancient ruins and walked to the familiar megalith. With a flick of his wrist, he levitated the stone upwards and to the side, setting it gently on the ground. He bent down and lifted up a shale flagstone, revealing a rickety wooden box hidden beneath. He opened the lid carefully and sighed with relief. They were still here. No one had discovered his secret hiding place. He gathered the seven time stones into his arms and closed his eyes. He would fix it all. Everything would be okay. "Great time stones! Take me back to the time and place where all our sorrows began! Back before Mobius began warping into this nightmare!" The stones glowed dimly at first, and with burst of energy they emitted a blinding light, and they, along with Silver, vanished.


	2. Chapter Two

**SatAm**

Sonic the hedgehog opened the door of his cottage and yawned. He stretched his arms skyward, feeling his bones crack. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he noticed a strange girl lying on the ground in the village square. His eyes widened. "Huh?" he said to himself, then dashed over to the figure and bent over her. She was certainly the strangest person he had ever seen. She was a hedgehog, but unlike any Mobian hedgehog, her fur looked like she had been thrown in a vat of rainbow tie-dye paint.

He reached to touch her shoulder. "Don't!"

Sonic looked behind him. "Sal!" He looked from her to the young girl.

"Don't move her. If she's seriously hurt, you could make it worse." Sally felt of her wrist. "She has a pulse and she's still breathing."

The hedgehog's eyes snapped open and she groaned.

"She's awake!" said Sonic. Uncurling from her fetal position, she looked up at them and smiled.

By this time, Tails had joined them. "Aunt Sally, who is that?"

Tails couldn't help but stare at her. Her eyes were rainbow, each ring around the pupil a different color.

"My name is Mary Sue Smith, but I like to be called Sparkly."

Tails laughed. "I see why they call you that! You have really sparkly clothes!" She was wearing a pink t-shirt with a fairy on it which was adorned with glitter, blue jeans splattered with glitter, and white shoes with pink glittering laces.

"Welcome to Knothole, Sparkly. They call me--"

"Sonic. I know."

He gasped. "How did you know?"

She let out a flirtatious giggle and batted her eyelashes at him. "Everyone in the real world knows who you are."

"Say what? Real world?"

"Yeah, the real world. This isn't the real world. This is a cartoon that's really famous on Earth."

Sonic's brow furrowed in confusion and then he laughed nervously, thinking she was playing some joke on him. "Earth?"

"Yeah. That's the planet I came from. I was a human there, but I guess I'm a hedgehog now!" She giggled.

"Right," said Sally. She regarded Sparkly carefully, her thoughts a turmoil of suspicion and concern. "Where are you from and how did you end up here?"

Sparkly stood up, glaring at Sally. "You don't believe me? How can you not believe me?" Her voice dripped with hate. Sally flinched at Sparkly's sudden, extreme mood change.

"You're speaking nonsense, Sparkly. Are you okay?"

"I am not talking nonsense!" She stomped her foot in emphasis. "It's all true! It started with that earthquake!"

"What earthquake?" said Sonic. "The one in Hydro City?"

"No! One in California!" she shouted in frustration. "California has them all the time! The house was shaking really hard, harder than normal, and a bookend fell off the shelf and onto my head! When I woke up I was here! I was watching your TV show just before I blacked out. I must have been sucked into my television like in a fanfiction." She got a glimpse of Tails out of the corner of her eye, who quickly looked away from her and began fidgeting. _What is his problem?_

Sally stared at her, confused. None of what Sparkly said made sense. She didn't know what California or a fanfiction is, but one detail of the story stood out. "You hit your head?" she asked.

"Yes!"

Sally grabbed Sonic's wrist. "I'll be right back," she said to Sparkly, pulling Sonic away.

"I don't know what to think about her." Her voice was a whisper. "She said that she hit her head, so that makes me think that she's ill, but how did she know your name?"

"That's easy, Sal." He ran to his hut and back in the blink of an eye and returned with a rolled-up sheet of paper in his hand. "We're the most wanted so-called criminals in Robotropolis, remember? These have been everywhere." He unrolled it. It was a wanted poster depicting Sonic with the following text.

_WANTED! DANGEROUS TERRORIST!_

_Sonic the hedgehog, the leader of a heinous terrorist cell hiding in an unknown location, is wanted for attempts to overthrow the government, bombing of manufacturing facilities, disrupting the power supply of Robotropolis, and a myriad of other crimes._

"Every time I turn on the television, I see my face. Everyone knows who we are, Sal."

Sally sighed in relief; she had thought that Sparkly could be a spy, but Sonic's explanation made sense. She glanced at Sparkly, but had to turn away quickly. Looking at the garish creature hurt her eyes.

"What do you think we should do with her?" said Sonic.

"We'll have to keep her here for now until we find out where she really belongs It worries me that she mentioned hitting her head. I think that she may have a head injury. She needs to see a doctor now." Sally walked over to Sparkly and gently put her hand on her shoulder. "Honey, based on the story you told us about hurting your head, we think you might have a concussion. Come on, the doctor lives at the end of this street."

"I don't have a concussion! What would make you think that?"

"You're speaking in nonsense and you said that the last thing you remember is having a bookend fall on your head."

"Nonsense? What nonsense?"

"Sparkly, you were just saying that you're living in a TV show."

"But it's true! This is a TV show! Why won't you believe me?"

Sonic looked into Sally's eyes; they had a way of communicating without words. _Don't push that poor girl_, that look said. She nodded her head in understanding. "I believe you, Sparkly," said Sonic.

"You do?"

"Of course I do, but I think we should check you out any way, just in case, okay?" Sonic plastered on a smile for her. Happy that someone was finally understanding her, Sparkly happily complied, following them to the end of the road.

* * *

Sparkly sat on the edge of her seat, swinging her legs back and forth. The raccoon shone a light into her eye and then clicked it off. "I see nothing wrong with her physically," he said to Sally. "The problem appears to be psychological."

"So you're saying I'm crazy," said Sparkly, glaring at him. Why did the doctor have to be on Sally's side? Why couldn't he believe her, like Sonic? She had been sitting here for the last ten minutes, listening to Sally's obviously exaggerated account of the "strange tales" she had told them, and it had infuriated her.

Dr. Ringtail shook his head. "No, but I am saying that you are a girl who needs help. I am going to make an appointment with a psychologist for you."

"A psychologist? You do think I'm crazy! I'm not going to some shrink! He'll just make me crazy for real! You can go ahead and make that appointment, but I'm not going!" She hopped off the table and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"Sparkly!" said Sonic, running out after her.

After a few seconds of silence, the doctor said quietly, "Princess, that girl is suffering from psychotic delusions; do you think that she may be a danger to herself or others?"

"Not from what I've seen."

"I see," he said, tapping his pen against his chin in thought. "Don't hesitate to contact me if she gets any worse."

"I will, Doctor."

After Sonic had found Sparkly, and after many assurances that everyone did not think she was a lunatic, Sonic helped her settle with what few possessions she had on her in a spare hut. Sparkly watched him leave, meeting back up with Sally and Tails on a street corner. Sonic put his hand in Sally's and they walked away together, Tails following closely behind. She glared at him with something that was slightly like jealousy, but not quite. After all, she thought Sonic was really cute, but not as cute as _him_. She thought to herself, _Sonic deserves better. I'll see to that, and he'll thank me later. _So far things were not going the way she had planned. Sparkly had come here expecting to actually be accepted and liked, which was the opposite of the way things had been going back on Earth. Instead everyone thought that she was a nutcase and she didn't like the way Tails had been treating her today; after their initial encounter he had suddenly clammed up and kept looking at her as if she frightened him. Sparkly clenched the window sill, her knuckles turning white. No matter. She would fix everything and this time she would make sure that things wouldn't go wrong.

* * *

When they had gotten out of earshot, Tails said, "Sonic, why did you tell Sparkly that you believe her? I could tell that you really didn't."

"She's sick, little buddy. It would only make things worse to argue with her."

"Why?"

"I think that she really believes in what she said."

"That she's from another planet?"

"Yeah."

"I think that maybe she is. She looks funny."

Sonic chuckled. "Yeah, I know what you're talking about! Have you ever seen anything so weird? Who has fur like that? She must have dyed it that way."

"Sonic the hedgehog! Don't encourage him!" said Sally.

Tails looked down at the ground and nervously shuffled his feet. "I don't mean funny like that, Sonic. It's a different kind of funny, a bad one. Sparkly creeps me out."

"People are often scared of people in her condition," Sally said.

"It's not that. I don't know how to describe it, but there's something really scary about her."

"The eyes?" said Sonic. "They are ugly. They have to be contact lenses."

"No. It's something different. I don't know how to put it in words. I don't want her to be around me."

"Tails," Sally said. "That's a horrible thing to say! How could you?"

Tails didn't answer her. He stared at the ground, dragging his feet. He reached the doorstep of his house and opened the door. "I'm going to take a nap," he said without looking at them willing his voice not to betray his distress. Closing the door softly behind himself, he thought to himself, _why don't the __older Freedom Fighters ever listen to me? Just because I'm a kid doesn't mean that I don't know anything!_ He flopped down on his bed but never fell asleep because of all the thoughts racing through his head.


	3. Chapter Three

**Sonic SatAM**

Sparkly sat at the table sullenly, poking a piece of grilled fish. She didn't like Mobian food. It tasted funny.

She had been sitting like that for the past few minutes, looking down at her plate as if Sonic, Sally, and Tails were not there. Sonic decided to cheer her up by striking up a conversation. "So Sparkly."

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a family back home?"

She nodded her head and said nothing.

"Got any brothers or sisters?"

"No. It's just me and Mom and Dad, but actually it's just me."

"What do you mean by that?" Sally asked.

"My parents run a company called TransWorld Airlines, and the company is their life. They love it more than me. I hardly ever see them. They come home maybe once a week, but they don't stay long. They know it's wrong and that it hurts me because when they actually come home, they buy me whatever I want, but that doesn't make it better."

"That's so terrible."

"Don't feel sorry for me," Sparkly said. "I hate it when people feel sorry for me." She glared at Sally, who had the fleeting thought that the girl could probably kill people with that look. "My parents probably don't even care if I'm dead." She stabbed her fork vehemently into the fish, and then stared at it blankly, lost in thought.

"That's not true," said Sonic. "I'm sure they miss you right now. Where are you from again?"

"I told you already! California!"

"I've never heard of it."

"That's probably because it's on another planet! I keep telling you these things and you won't listen to me!" She stood up suddenly, placed her palms on the table, and gave him a hateful stare. Tails whimpered and scrunched his body as far down into his chair as he could.

"I'm only trying to help," Sonic said softly.

"Well stop it! I don't need anyone's help!" She stormed out of the hut, slamming the door behind her.

Sally looked back and forth from Sonic and Tails. She wasn't sure what to say or do. She had never encountered anyone quite like Sparkly, someone whose mood could shift violently in a matter of seconds. Sonic squirmed nervously in his chair.

"This situation is so _difficult_," she finally said. "The doctor said to try not to provoke her, but everything provokes her. She's been nothing but angry and argumentative since she came."

"Then don't talk to her, Sal," said Sonic. "See how she likes that."

Sally thought for a moment. "I don't know if that would make it better. I can tell that Sparkly really hates me, Sonic; I mean she doesn't just dislike me, but truly hates me."

Tails jumped out of his chair. "I don't see why you let her stay! All she does is make people angry or sad! And she keeps fighting with everyone!"

Sally felt her royal composure and polite nature breaking down. Sparkly was really getting to her, too. "Tails, I don't like Sparkly any more than you do."

"Then kick her butt out of Knothole!" said Sonic, his voice rising slightly in anger.

"As much as I want to, I can't. It would be wrong because she's a sick girl. We have to find out where she belongs."

"What if you don't find out where she came from? What are you going to do with her then?" Tails said.

Sally couldn't answer him. She hadn't considered that possibility. She had assumed that she would get this information out of Sparkly very soon. "I don't know, Tails, but I'll think of something. I promise." A look of relief crossed Tails's face. He knew that Sally kept her promises.

All of a sudden a loud boom echoed through the forest and Sally, along with everyone else, was thrown violently to onto the floor. Sally stood up, disoriented. She put a hand against the wall to steady herself. "What...what happened?"

"I don't know," said Sonic. "Come on, let's check it out." Sally followed Sonic out the door and gasped in shock. She didn't know exactly what to call what she saw. The scene playing out before her was translucent, as if it was some sort of mirage or hologram. A blue gelatinous monster, so large that it towered above the skyscrapers around it, surveyed the ruined city around it with satisfaction. It had two yellow, slitted eyes and a mouth full of countless sharp teeth. Its attention was suddenly caught by a loud whirring sound above its head, which was coming from a metal air ship hovering nearby. The creature raised on of its many tentacles and flicked it away as if it were an annoying mosquito.

Sonic suddenly noticed Sparkly was standing a mere inches away from it, staring. He grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

"What are you doing?" Sparkly said, jerking her arm out of his grasp.

"I don't think that you should be near that...thing! It could be dangerous!"

"Oh please! It's not even real! Look!" She walked towards the image of the beast and thrust her hand through it. "See? Why are you two so scared?"

"Because we don't know what that is!" said Sally. "What if it's one of Robotnik's tricks?"

Sparkly scoffed. "And why would Robotnik beam a picture of Cha--I mean--that whatchamacallit, into Knothole?" She raised an eyebrow and put one hand on her hip.

"Um, I dunno, a distraction?" said Sonic.

She rolled her eyes. "You can be so dense."

"Hey!"

Sally looked at Sparkly and then at the vision of Chaos. Sparkly had a point. It sort of didn't make sense for Robotnik to beam random images in places, and he didn't know where Knothole was any way. She sighed. "Sparkly, it's okay. He was only looking out for you. We don't know what this is or where it came from, so it's best not to mess with it. However..." her voice trailed off. There was one person who might know. "Nicole, can you trace the source of this transmission?"

Nicole's screen lit up and she made a series of beeps and clicks. "The transmission is not from this world, Sally."

Sonic and Sally gasped.

"You mean..from outer space or somethin'?" said Sonic.

"Yes and no," said Nicole.

"What?! It can't be both!" said Sonic.

"The transmission is not a transmission. It is a distortion caused by a magnetic disturbance in the spacetime fabric."

"Spacetime what?" said Sonic.

"She means that--" Sally was interrupted by another loud bang, sounding much like the first one. A bright sphere of blinding yellow light materialized, crackling with electrical energy, and a hedgehog was thrown from its center and was sent skidding and rolling in the dirt, and then the energy ball vanished.

The hedgehog sat up, rubbing his head, and groaned. "I'll never get used to time traveling," he said. He looked around him, his eyes widening in surprise. "I didn't expect the stones to take me to this version of Mobius. I thought that I'd land in my own!"

"Uh, excuse me," said Sonic, "but what are you talkin' about? Time travel? This version of Mobius?"

The hedgehog stood up and dusted himself off. "I should introduce myself first. I'm from the future. My name is Silver."

Sparkly pushed her way between Sonic and Sally. "And what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be in this cartoon." Her voice was low, and almost a hiss.

Silver took an awkward step backward, almost tripping. "This cartoon? What do you mean?"

"It's nothing," said Sally quickly.

"Oh. To answer you question," he pointed behind him at the image of Perfect Chaos. "I'm here because of that."

"You know something about it?"

Silver nodded. He took a deep breath, taking a moment to organize his thoughts. "I'm not only from the future. I'm from a parallel universe, too." He gestured towards Chaos. "That one. What you're seeing is an interdimensional bleed."

Sally said slowly, "So parallel worlds are real? Our scientists have theorized about them, but nothing has been proved."

"It doesn't surprise me that you don't know. The scientific knowledge and technology on this Mobius are far behind ours."

Sally's eyes sparkled in fascination. She would have to ask Silver about this advanced technology later, but went back to Sparkly's question. "Interesting. What brought you here?"

"In the future something caused the interdimensional barriers to collapse, melding all different versions of Mobius together. It was so terrible, and so many people died that everyone thought that the end of the world had come! But it was only the beginning! It was like..." Silver struggled with an explanation. How could he explain the bizarre phenomenon he had witnessed without sounding insane? Suddenly he remembered an incident Tails had told him about.

"The Mobius that was left, it was all of them melded together. All was quiet for a little while, and people thought it was over. Then Mobius...changed. The people on it began changing. Tails, do you remember when Robotnik kidnapped Sally and replaced her with an android?"

"Yes. How did you know about that?"

"We're friends in the future, and you told me about it. Do you remember how you saw that Sally was not herself?"

"Yes."

"Something like that happened to almost everyone I know."

Sonic looked at him in disbelief. "Robotnik replaced everyone with clones?"

"No. The people aren't robot clones. They're...different. They become different overnight."

"I don't get it," said Sonic.

"It's like people are under a spell! I'll give you an example: Mephiles."

"Who?" said Sally.

Silver described how Mephiles normally behaved and their hatred towards each other, and then told them about the incident in which he had woken up to see Mephiles beside his bed, claiming that he loved Silver. "And it's like that with everyone! They just become so different so suddenly!"

"I kind of get what you're sayin', I think," said Sonic slowly.

Silver sighed in relief. He was glad that someone got it. "I came here with the help of the time stones. I asked them to bring me to the time and place where it all began, so that's how I came here. From the looks of that," he said, pointing at the image of Chaos, which was beginning to fade. "The interdimensional collapse has already began. I have to stop this now. You'll help me, won't you?"

"Of course!" said Sonic.

"Why don't you come inside with us?" asked Sally. "Then we can talk about it more." Sparkly stood still for a moment, watching the others walk ahead of her. She was torn between following Silver to hear what he had to say about this, or going home to accomplish what she had planned for tonight. In the end she decided against the latter; whatever Silver had to say couldn't possibly be important. He couldn't be smart enough to know anything anyway, she told herself. There was no need to worry over him. He was nothing.


	4. Chapter Four

**Sonic Underground**

"Hey Sonic, give me that 3/8 wrench," said Manic. He heard the clanking of metal as Sonic dug through Manic's toolbox and he slid the wrench under the van. "Thanks."

Manic heard the garage door open. "Sonic! Manic!" Sonia yelled, walking in wearing a bathrobe and slippers.

Manic crawled out from under the van. "What?"

"Do you two have to play that music so loud? I'm trying to get some beauty sleep. If I wake up with dark circles under my eyes tomorrow, both of you are going to get it!"

"Chill, sis," said Sonic. He turned the radio's volume knob down.

Sonia suddenly gasped. "Manic! Look at you!"

Manic shrugged. "I know. I'm all oily."

"No. _Look_ at you!" said Sonic.

Manic saw that his brother's face had a look of terror. He looked down at himself and saw that he was translucent. He began to panic. "What's going on? What's happening to me?! Sonic, help!" He tried to grab Sonic by his shoulders, but his hands went through him, as if he were a ghost. The world around him began to blur and all sound became muffled as if he were under water. He could faintly hear Sonia screaming at Sonic to go get the Oracle. Everything faded to black and Manic grew colder and colder by the second. He felt like he was frozen to the core and would never be warm again. Falling unconscious, his body was pulled through interdimensional space.

When Manic awoke he was aware of someone poking him in the arm. "Stop doing that!" said a familiar voice.

"Sonic?" he mumbled, slowly opening his eyes. Who he saw bending over him was not Sonic, but some strange female hedgehog. He blinked, not believing his eyes. Seeing Sparkly's obscenely glittering rainbow fur and bizarre eyes, he wondered if this was what it was like to be on an acid trip.

She poked him again. "You're alive," she said, giggling.

"Yeah," said Manic. "Now stop poking me." He sat up and saw that he was in an unfamiliar wooden house, a fire crackling softly in the fireplace. Sonic and a strange ground squirrel were sitting on the floor beside him. "Sonic, where am I? What happened?"

"You know who I am?" said Sonic.

Manic rolled his eyes. "Of course I know who you are. You're my brother."

Sonic raised his eyebrows. "I don't have a brother."

"Sonic, stop being dumb."

"I'm not being dumb! How is it that you know me and I don't know you?"

Deciding that Sonic was intentionally being really annoying, he frowned and walked over the fire to warm his hands. He wondered if the residual coldness would ever go away. "Where on Mobius are we, any way? The last thing I remember is that you and me were in the garage changing the oil in the van, and then Sonia came in griping about our loud music. Everything got real dark and cold, and then I passed out, I think. And then I woke up here."

"Where are you? You're in Knothole!" said Sparkly in a singsong voice. "I'm Sparkly!" She held out her hand.

"I'm Manic." He took her hand and shook it, only to jerk it away quickly. _That was so weird,_ he thought. Upon touching her, he had felt a jolt of energy run through his body and his hand was tingling. He felt his vision cloud over for a couple of seconds.

"Dude, are you okay?" asked Sonic, noticing the blank look on Manic's face. Manic rubbed his eyes, and the blurriness went away.

"Uh, yeah."

Sonic held out a large green glowing gem in one hand. "We saw this beside you when we found you. Is it yours?"

"Yeah. It must have fallen out of my knapsack." He stared into its glittering depths. He wondered if the chaos emerald had anything to do with this. Chaos emeralds were unpredictable as their name would suggest, especially if one emerald was near another one.

Sparkly's eyes widened. "Oh, that is so pretty. Is it a chaos emerald?"

"Yes. You know about chaos emeralds?"

Sparkly nodded. "Can I hold it?"

Manic regarded her with suspicion. He didn't like the greedy look in her eyes. "No, it's a really dangerous gem. You, um, could get hurt." He replaced it in his knapsack.

"Manic, what is a chaos emerald?" asked Sonic.

"Sonic, seriously, if you don't cut it out--"

He was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Come in," said Sally. It was Silver. "Hey Sally, Rotor wants to know if--" He stopped mid-sentence. "Manic the hedgehog? How did you get here? Why are you not in your home dimension?"

"Excuse me?"

"You shouldn't be here! No, no no!" He shook his head and briskly paced the floor. "This is happening faster than I expected. The alternate versions of Mobius are already merging together! How fast is this happening? How much time do I have left?!"

"Dude, what _are_ you talking about?"

Silver explained how the different versions of Mobius were melding together, and told Sonic how his alternate self in another reality was Manic's brother.

Manic said, "So you're saying, I'm in a different dimension? I got caught up in all this spacetime warping stuff, and that's why I'm here?"

"Yes."

"And you don't know who's doing it?"

"No."

"Any ideas?"

"Uh, no." Silver felt a rush of anxiety flood him. Since last night, Sonic and his friends had been looking up to him to know something, to have some idea of what was going on. After all, he was the one from the future who had rushed back here to save everyone. He had the sudden realization that he had no idea what he was doing here or what he was looking for. He felt ashamed and foolish. _If only Blaze was here, she would know what to do._ _What have I gotten myself into? I don't even have any clues to go on. Okay, think, Silver. Hmmm. I asked the time stones to send me to the source of the problem, and they sent me to this Mobius, so it all started here. But this dimension is so unfamiliar that I don't even know where to begin to look. But maybe they would._

"Sonic, Sally, who in this world would even have the power to do this?"

"Robotnik!" said Sonic.

"Yeah, but who else?"

"Ixis Naugus?" said Sally. "He is the most powerful sorcerer on Mobius. It's possible that he could have something to do with it."

"Anyone else?" There was silence. "Okay, I think we should investigate those two."

"Good idea," said Sally. "Sonic, you can take Tails with you to Robotropolis. Silver, you can come with me to the badlands to check on Naugus."

"Do you need help?" said Manic. "I'm a seasoned Freedom Fighter back home."

"Sure. You can go with Sonic," said Sally.

"I want to help, too!" said Sparkly.

"No! It's too dangerous!" said Sonic.

"But--"

"NO!"

"Jerk," she muttered under her breath. She clenched her fists and left the hut, slamming the door behind her. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"All right everyone. This is what we're going to do..." began Sally.

* * *

**Sega Sonic, the Future**

Leaning back in his chair, his feet upon his desk, Vector felt his eyes getting heavier and heavier. Things were getting very boring. Vector hadn't had a new case in so long that he worried how he would pay everyone this month. The minute that he dozed off, he was awakened by the front door of the Chaotix Detective Agency opening violently. "Aaah!" he said, jumping up and nearly falling out of his chair. It was Mephiles. He ran to Vector's desk, tears pouring out of his eyes.

"Vector! You have to help me! Silvy was right next to me, and then he was gone, and I called for him and he wasn't there! Someone kidnapped him I know!"

"Whoa! Slow down, Mephiles! Start over again. Where were you when you last saw him?" Vector handed him a tissue and he blew his nose loudly.

"Angel Island."

"What's this all about?" said Espio as he came into the room followed by Charmy.

"Someone stole my Silvy from me! He's gone!" said Mephiles in between sniffles.

"When did you last see him?"

"Yesterday. He didn't come home to me last night. He wouldn't just disappear like this. He loves me! I'm scared that I'll never see him again." Mephiles dropped down to his knees and grasped Espio by his legs. "You have to help me find him! I'll pay you fifty power rings! No, a thousand! Anything to find my Silver. I...I..." his last words were drowned out in a loud wail.

"Okay, okay," said Espio. "We'll take the case, but get up off the floor and stop that, okay?"

"Okay." Mephiles wiped the tears off his face with his hand and smiled. "Thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me!" He grabbed Espio in a big bear hug.

"Mephiles, let go! You're going to suffocate me!" Charmy chuckled. "Not...funny..." he said, gasping for breath.

Mephiles released him and giggled. "I'm sorry. I forgot that mortals were so fragile." Vector groaned. He thought that he felt a headache coming on. He didn't want to put up with Mephiles acting like this, but a case was a case and they needed the money.

"Okay, Mephiles," said Vector. "Start at the beginning. Tell me everything. Don't leave anything out, even if it seems unimportant."

Mephiles nodded and began his account of the last time that he had seen Silver.


End file.
